What Will It Take For Nebraska Voters To Approve Expanded Sports Betting?

It’s August, and that means college football is in the air — especially in Nebraska. Here is a state that lives and breathes its Cornhuskers football, no matter if it’s losing or winning.

This passion spills over into the stands, but rarely ever into the sportsbook. You see, Nebraska sports betting has a major lid on it. It can only be done through physical sportsbooks in the state, of which there are five statewide. But there are no sports betting apps allowed for mobile wagering.

That is, unless Nebraska voters change that in the November elections. It’s not official yet, but it appears the issue will be available on the ballot in a few short months. That’s great, but it’s far from guaranteed to pass. That’s why in this article, we wanted to guess how proponents of betting expansion can help get this thing passed. Keep on reading, and we’ll explain!

Money Will Not Get This Bill Passed Alone

Let’s quickly backtrack because we need context first. An organization calling itself Tax Relief Nebraska turned in over 350,000 signatures to the state government. The signatures are being double-checked, but that’s believed to be enough to get this issue in the November election.

But just know, the Tax Relief Nebraska organization has money behind it, form massive names. First of all, top apps like DraftKings and FanDuel are helping finance them. Reports say both have put in at least $1 million.

Then there’s WarHorse Casino — a giant inside the state. They too are donating since the expansion could and should be a boon to their business. WarHorse has openly said they’d partner with the likes of BetMGM or FanDuel to offer sports betting across the state.

Some of the money donated by all parties is helping pay salaries of the folks that got the signatures in the first place. You’d expect more money to trickle in on ads to convince voters to say yes come November.

But ads alone won’t swing the vote. No, no, they’ll need great messaging too. We’ve covered the legal sports betting industry for years now so we think we know what’s a winning message. Here are our top-three talking points we’d recommend to Tax Relief Nebraska:

Nebrasa Already Has Online Betting, It’s Just Not Fully Benefiting

This would be our first talking point. Online and mobile sports betting is already happening en masse in Nebraska.

Offshore sportsbooks are popular in the state. So too are prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. Heck, there are local bookies taking bets from Nebraska citizens. All these are freely happening in the state — despite laws against online wagering in Nebraska.

We know this, but do all Nebraska voters know? Probably not, which is why we’d hammer this home in messaging. Current laws aren’t stopping folks from getting their fix — they’re just going elsewhere instead.

And on that note, that elsewhere doesn’t actually benefit Nebraska. The places getting the betting money don’t pay any taxes back to the state. When you look at this way, then it’s obvious the law isn’t stopping anyone from doing it, and it’s just giving up money that can stay in state. Easy sell, no?

Sell Property Tax Relief, Not Sports Betting

Notice how the organization pushing this is called Tax Relief Nebraska? That’s a great tell on how they plan to message around this issue — and we think it’s a winning strategy.

It’s not just that Nebraska wants to expand sports betting. The organization also proposed that 70 percent of the state’s tax revenue from online sports betting would go toward property tax relief. Estimates have previously put the potential tax haul at more than $30 million annually for the state.

Look, we think this is genius. Sports bettors in the state aren’t the ones that need to be convinced here; it’s the everyday citizens that probably don’t bet. How do you get them to care about this then? Welp, you promise to lower their tax bill, that’s how!

That gives proponents a simple message for someone who couldn’t care less about betting on the Cornhuskers or the NFL: you never have to place a single wager yourself, but why not tax the people who do and use that money to lower your burden? That’s a message that can resonate to anyone.

Remind Voters That Sports Betting Is Already Legal

We think the first two talking points are the biggest, but here’s one more: make voters understand exactly what they’re voting on.

Nebraska isn’t deciding whether to legalize sports betting from scratch. It already did that. The question is whether someone should have to physically drive to a casino to place a bet (and pay these ridiculously high gas prices) or whether they can make that exact same wager from their phone without the friction.

That’s an important talking point because the word “expansion” can sound scary, especially to a voter that’s already skeptical of gambling. It makes it sound like Nebraska is suddenly opening the floodgates. But that’s not really what’s happening here.

So we’d keep the messaging simple: if you’re already fine with Nebraskans legally betting on sports, what difference does it really make where they’re standing when they do it? You don’t have to love gambling to see the logic there. And combined with the tax benefits we mentioned above, that might be enough to get enough voters to check “yes” come November.